Allowing paper filing of financial disclosures not only kills trees, but also costs the Commission hundreds of thousands of dollars

But the cost of postage is not the only financial burden on the Commission. The legislature was also kind enough to give the Commission the added responsibility of being the only agency that gives the public access to these records, and did away with a provision that required candidates to file their financial disclosure statements online. This means they will have eight to ten times the workload they previously had. Jim Walls of AtlantaUnfiltered noted, “Receiving half those filings on paper will require five new staffers to open the mail, ensure each disclosure is signed and notarized, and enter receipt into a computerized system so a late fee is not assessed.” This is potentially going to cost the Commission $290,450 extra that they did not budget for because they will have to process the paper-copies and create digital records of them. This is also bad news for voters because in order to access the documents they will have to make a trip down to the Commission office and pay for expensive gas, or be charged for having them mailed (yet more postage).

Let’s recap for a moment: The cost for sending out the certified notices is estimated to cost $136,250, but the Commission only has $5,000 to do it. Without the money to send the notices, they cannot collect the late fees. Also, because Local Election Officials are no longer in charge of the finance disclosures, it will cost the Commission an additional $290,450. That’s a whopping total of $421,700 that they don’t have!

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